Harrison's political career began in 1798, with an appointment as secretary of the Northwest Territory. In 1799, he was elected as the territory's non-voting delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives. He became governor of the newly established Indiana Territory in 1801 and negotiated multiple treaties with American Indian tribes, with the nation acquiring millions of acres. After the War of 1812, he moved to Ohio where, in 1816, he was elected to represent the state's 1st district in the House. In 1824, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, though his Senate term was cut short by his appointment as minister plenipotentiary to Gran Colombia in 1828.
Harrison returned to private life in Ohio until he was nominated as one of several Whig Party nominees in the 1836 U.S. presidential election, in which he lost to Democratic vice president Martin Van Buren. In the 1840 presidential election, the party nominated him again, with John Tyler as his running mate, under the campaign slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too", and Harrison defeated Van Buren. Just three weeks after his inauguration, Harrison fell ill and died days later. After resolution of an ambiguity in the constitution regarding succession to the powers and duties of the office, Tyler became president. Harrison is remembered for his Indian treaties, and also his inventive election campaign tactics. He is often omitted in historical presidential rankings due to the brevity of his tenure.
Early life and education
William Henry Harrison was the seventh and youngest child of Benjamin Harrison V and Elizabeth (Bassett) Harrison. Born on February 9, 1773, at Berkeley Plantation, the home of the Harrison family of Virginia on the James River in Charles City County,[1] he became the last United States president not born as an American citizen.[2] The Harrisons were a prominent political family of English descent whose ancestors had been in Virginia since the 1630s.[3] His father was a Virginia planter, who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress (1774–1777) and who signed the Declaration of Independence.[3] His father also served in the Virginia legislature and as the fifth governor of Virginia (1781–1784) in the years during and after the American Revolutionary War.[3] Harrison's older brother Carter Bassett Harrison represented Virginia in the House of Representatives (1793–1799).[4] William Henry often referred to himself as a "child of the revolution", as indeed he was, having grown up in a home just 30mi (48km) from where Washington won the war against the British in the Battle of Yorktown.[5]
Harrison was tutored at home until age 14 when he attended Hampden–Sydney College, a Presbyterian college in Hampden Sydney, Virginia.[3][6] He studied there for three years, receiving a classical education that included Latin, Greek, French, logic, and debate.[7][8] His Episcopalian father removed him from the college, possibly for religious reasons, and after brief stays at an academy in Southampton County, Virginia, and with his elder brother Benjamin in Richmond, he went to Philadelphia in 1790.[9]
His father died in the spring of 1791, and he was placed in the care of Robert Morris, a close family friend in Philadelphia.[10] He studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. During his time at Penn, he studied with Doctor Benjamin Rush, a Founding Father of the United States and a Penn professor of chemistry and medicine and William Shippen Sr.[10] His older brother inherited their father's money, so he lacked the funds for his further medical schooling, which he had also discovered he didn't prefer.[5] He therefore withdrew from Penn, though school archives record him as a "non-graduate alumnus of Penn's medical school class of 1793".[10] With the influence of his father's friend, Governor Henry Lee III, he embarked upon a military career.[11]
Early military career
On August 16, 1791, within 24 hours of meeting Lee, Harrison, age 18, was commissioned as an ensign in the Army and assigned to the First American Regiment.[12] He was initially assigned to Fort Washington, Cincinnati in the Northwest Territory where the army was engaged in the ongoing Northwest Indian War.[13] Biographer William W. Freehling says that young Harrison, in his first military act, rounded up about eighty thrill-seekers and troublemakers off Philadelphia's streets, talked them into signing enlistment papers, and marched them to Fort Washington.[5]
Harrison was promoted to lieutenant after Major General "Mad Anthony" Wayne took command of the western army in 1792, following a disastrous defeat under Arthur St. Clair.[12] In 1793, he became Wayne's aide-de-camp and acquired the skills to command an army on the frontier;[6] he participated in Wayne's decisive victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20, 1794, which ended the Northwest Indian War.[14] He received the following commendation from Wayne for his role in the battle: "I must add the name of my faithful and gallant Aide-de-camp... Lieutenant Harrison, who... rendered the most essential service by communicating my orders in every direction... conduct and bravery exciting the troops to press for victory."[5] Harrison was a signatory of the Treaty of Greenville (1795), as witness to Wayne, the principal negotiator for the U.S.[12] Under the terms of the treaty, a coalition of Indians ceded a portion of their lands to the federal government, opening two-thirds of Ohio to settlement.[15][16]
At his mother's death in 1793, Harrison inherited a portion of his family's Virginia estate, including approximately 3,000 acres (12km2) of land and several slaves. He was serving in the Army at the time and sold the land to his brother.[17] Harrison was promoted to captain in May 1797 and resigned from the Army on June 1, 1798.[18]
Marriage and family
Harrison met Anna Tuthill Symmes of North Bend, Ohio in 1795 when he was 22. She was a daughter of Anna Tuthill and Judge John Cleves Symmes, who served as a colonel in the Revolutionary War and as a representative to the Congress of the Confederation.[19] Harrison asked the judge for permission to marry Anna but was refused, so the couple waited until Symmes left on business. They then eloped and were married on November 25, 1795, at the North Bend home of Stephen Wood, treasurer of the Northwest Territory.[20] They honeymooned at Fort Washington, since Harrison was still on military duty.[21] Judge Symmes confronted him two weeks later at a farewell dinner for General Wayne, sternly demanding to know how he intended to support a family. Harrison responded, "by my sword, and my own right arm, sir".[22] The match was advantageous for Harrison, as he eventually exploited his father-in-law's connections with land speculators, which facilitated his departure from the army.[5] Judge Symmes' doubts about him persisted, as he wrote to a friend, "He can neither bleed, plead, nor preach, and if he could plow I should be satisfied."[5] Matters eventually became cordial with the father-in-law, who later sold the Harrisons 160 acres (65ha) of land in North Bend, which enabled Harrison to build a home and start a farm.[21]
Anna was frequently in poor health during the marriage, primarily because of her many pregnancies, yet she outlived William by 23 years, dying on February 25, 1864, at 88.[7][23]
The Harrisons had ten children:
Elizabeth Bassett (1796–1846)
John Cleves Symmes (1798–1830), who married the only surviving daughter of Zebulon Pike
Professor Kenneth R. Janken, in his biography of Walter Francis White, claims that Harrison had six children by an enslaved African-American woman named Dilsia and gave four of them to a brother before running for president to avoid scandal. The assertion is based on the White family's oral history.[26][27] In her 2012 biography of Harrison, author Gail Collins describes this as an unlikely story, although White believed it to be true.[28]
Political career
Harrison began his political career when he temporarily resigned from the military on June 1, 1798, and campaigned among his friends and family for a post in the Northwest Territorial government.[12] His close friend Timothy Pickering was serving as Secretary of State, and along with Judge Symmes' influence, he was recommended to replace Winthrop Sargent, the outgoing territorial secretary.[5] President John Adams appointed Harrison to the position in July 1798.[12] The work of recording the activities of the territory was tedious, and he soon became bored, and sought a position in the U. S. Congress.[29]
Harrison had many friends in the eastern aristocracy and quickly gained a reputation among them as a frontier leader. He ran a successful horse-breeding enterprise that won him acclaim throughout the Northwest Territory.[12] Congress had legislated a territorial policy that led to high land costs, a primary concern for settlers in the Territory; Harrison became their champion to lower those prices. The Northwest Territory's population reached a sufficient number to have a congressional delegate in October 1799, and Harrison ran for election.[32] He campaigned to encourage further migration to the territory, which eventually led to statehood.[33]
Harrison defeated Arthur St. Clair Jr. by one vote to become the Northwest Territory's first congressional delegate in 1798 at age 26, and served in the Sixth United States Congress from March 4, 1799, to May 14, 1800.[34][35] He had no authority to vote on legislative bills, but he was permitted to serve on a committee, to submit legislation, and to engage in debate.[36] He became chairman of the Committee on Public Lands and promoted the Land Act of 1800, which made it easier to buy Northwest Territory land in smaller tracts at a lower cost.[32] Freeholders were permitted to buy smaller lots with a down payment of only five percent, and this became an important factor in the Territory's rapid population growth.[37]
Harrison was also instrumental in arranging the division of the Territory into two sections.[32] The eastern section continued to be known as the Northwest Territory and included present-day Ohio and eastern Michigan; the western section was named the Indiana Territory and included present-day Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, a portion of western Michigan, and an eastern portion of Minnesota. The two new territories were formally established by law in 1800.[38]
On May 13, 1800, President John Adams appointed Harrison as the governor of the Indiana Territory, based on his ties to the west and his apparent neutral political stances.[39] He served in this capacity for twelve years.[40] His governorship was confirmed by the Senate and he resigned from Congress to become the first Indiana territorial governor in 1801.[32][41]
Harrison began his duties on January 10, 1801, at Vincennes, the capital of the Indiana Territory.[42] Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were members of the Democratic-Republican Party, and they reappointed him as governor in 1803, 1806, and 1809.[32] In 1804, Harrison was assigned to administer the civilian government of the District of Louisiana. He conducted the district's affairs for five weeks until the Louisiana Territory was formally established on July 4, 1805, and Brigadier General James Wilkinson assumed the duties of governor.[43]
In 1805, Harrison built a plantation-style home near Vincennes that he named Grouseland, in tribute to the birds on the property.[19] The 26-room home was one of the first brick structures in the territory;[44] and it served as a center of social and political life in the territory during his tenure as governor.[45] Harrison founded a university at Vincennes in 1801, which was incorporated as Vincennes University on November 29, 1806.[46] The territorial capital was eventually moved to Corydon in 1813, and Harrison built a second home at nearby Harrison Valley.[47]
Harrison's primary responsibility was to obtain title to Indian lands that would allow future settlement and increase the territory's population, a requirement for statehood. He was also eager to expand the territory for personal reasons, as his political fortunes were tied to Indiana's eventual statehood.[5] While benefiting from land speculation on his own behalf, and acquiring two milling operations, he was credited as a good administrator, with significant improvements in roads and other infrastructure.[5]
When Harrison was reappointed as the Indiana territorial governor on February 8, 1803, he was given expanded authority to negotiate and conclude treaties with the Indians.[32] The 1804 Treaty of St. Louis with Quashquame required the Sauk and Meskwaki tribes to cede much of western Illinois and parts of Missouri. Many of the Sauk resented the loss of lands, especially their leader Black Hawk.[48] Harrison thought that the Treaty of Grouseland (1805) appeased some of the Indians, but tensions remained high along the frontier.[49] The Treaty of Fort Wayne (1809) raised new tensions when Harrison purchased more than 2.5million acres (10,000km2) from the Potawatomi, Delaware, Miami, and Eel River tribes. Some Indians disputed the authority of the tribes joining in the treaty.[50] Harrison was also able to conduct matters unquestioned by the government, as the administration changed hands from Jefferson to Madison.[5]
He pursued the treaty process aggressively, offering large subsidies to the tribes and their leaders, so as to gain political favor with Jefferson before his departure.[51] Biographer Freehling asserts that the Indians perceived the ownership of land was as common to all, just as the air that is breathed. In 1805, Harrison succeeded in acquiring for the nation as many as 51,000,000 acres from the Indians, after plying five of their chiefs with alcohol, for no more than a dollar per 20,000 acres ($21.00 in 2024), and comprising two-thirds of Illinois and sizable chunks of Wisconsin and Missouri.[5]
In addition to resulting tensions with the Indians, Harrison's pro-slavery position made him unpopular with the Indiana Territory's abolitionists, as he tried in vain to encourage slavery in the territory. In 1803, he had lobbied Congress to temporarily suspend for ten years Article VI of the Northwest Ordinance prohibiting slavery in the Indiana Territory.[52] Though Harrison asserted that the suspension was necessary to promote settlement and make the territory economically viable and ready for statehood, the proposal failed.[53] Lacking the suspension of Article VI, in 1807 the territorial legislature, with Harrison's support, enacted laws that authorized indentured servitude and gave masters authority to determine the length of service.[54]
President Jefferson, primary author of the Northwest Ordinance, made a secret compact with James Lemen to defeat the nascent pro-slavery movement supported by Harrison.[55] He donated $100 to encourage Lemen with abolition and other good works, and later (in 1808) another $20 ($394.00 in 2024) to help fund the church known as Bethel Baptist Church.[55] In Indiana, the planting of the anti-slavery church led to citizens signing a petition and organizing politically to defeat Harrison's efforts to legalize slavery in the territory.[55]
The Indiana Territory held elections to the legislature's upper and lower houses for the first time in 1809. Harrison found himself at odds with the legislature after the abolitionists came to power, and the eastern portion of the Indiana Territory grew to include a large anti-slavery population.[43] The Territory's general assembly convened in 1810, and its anti-slavery faction immediately repealed the indenturing laws previously enacted.[56] After 1809, the Indiana legislature assumed more authority and the territory advanced toward statehood.
Indian resistance to American expansion came to a head, with the leadership of Shawnee brothers Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa ("The Prophet"), in a conflict that became known as Tecumseh's War.[57] Tenskwatawa convinced the tribes that they would be protected by the Great Spirit and that no harm could befall them if they rose up against the settlers. He encouraged resistance by telling the tribes to pay white traders only half of what they owed and to give up all the white man's ways, including their clothing, muskets, and especially whiskey.[57] Harrison received word of the resistance through spies he had placed within the tribes, and asked Madison to fund military preparations. Madison dragged his feet, and Harrison attempted to negotiate, sending a letter to Tecumseh saying, "Our Blue Coats (U.S. Army soldiers) are more numerous than you can count, and our hunting shirts (volunteer militiamen) are like the leaves of the forests or the grains of sand on the Wabash."[5]
1915 depiction of Tecumseh, believed to be copying an 1808 sketch
In August 1810, Tecumseh led 400 warriors down the Wabash River to meet with Harrison in Vincennes. They were dressed in war paint, and their sudden appearance at first frightened the soldiers at Vincennes.[58] The leaders of the group were escorted to Grouseland, where they met Harrison. Tecumseh berated the condescending Harrison repeatedly, and insisted that the Fort Wayne Treaty was illegitimate, arguing that one tribe could not sell land without the approval of the other tribes. He asked Harrison to nullify it and warned that Americans should not attempt to settle the lands sold in the treaty.[5] Tecumseh informed Harrison that he had threatened to kill the chiefs who signed the treaty if they carried out its terms and that his confederation of tribes was growing rapidly.[59] Harrison said that the individual tribes were the owners of the land and could sell it as they wished. He rejected Tecumseh's claim that all the Indians formed one nation and said that each tribe could have separate relations with the United States if they chose to do so. Harrison argued that the Great Spirit would have made all the tribes speak one language if they were to be one nation.[59]
Tecumseh launched an "impassioned rebuttal", in the words of one historian, but Harrison was unable to understand his language.[59] Tecumseh then began shouting at Harrison and called him a liar.[5] A Shawnee friendly to Harrison cocked his pistol from the sidelines to alert Harrison that Tecumseh's speech was leading to trouble, and some witnesses reported that Tecumseh was encouraging the warriors to kill Harrison. Many of them began to pull their weapons, representing a substantial threat to Harrison and the town, which held a population of only 1,000. Harrison drew his sword, and Tecumseh's warriors backed down when the officers presented their firearms in his defense.[59] Chief Winamac was friendly to Harrison, and he countered Tecumseh's arguments, telling the warriors that they should return home in peace since they had come in peace. Before leaving, Tecumseh informed Harrison that he would seek an alliance with the British if the Fort Wayne Treaty was not nullified.[60] After the meeting, Tecumseh journeyed to meet with many of the tribes in the region, hoping to create a confederation to battle the United States.[61]
Harrison was concerned that Tecumseh's actions would endanger the statehood of Indiana, as well as his political future, leaving it "the haunt of a few wretched savages".[5] Tecumseh was traveling in 1811, leaving Tenskwatawa in charge of Indian forces. Harrison saw a window of opportunity in Tecumseh's absence, and advised Secretary of War William Eustis to present a show of force to the Indian confederation.[62] Despite being 13 years removed from military action, Harrison convinced Madison and Eustis to allow him to assume command.[5] He led an army north with 950 men to intimidate the Shawnee into making peace, but the tribes launched a surprise attack early on November 7 in the Battle of Tippecanoe.[63] Harrison countered and defeated the tribal forces at Prophetstown next to the Wabash and Tippecanoe Rivers; the battle became famous and he was hailed as a national hero. Although his troops had suffered 62 dead and 126 wounded during the battle and the Shawnee just 150 casualties, the Shawnee prophet's vision of spiritual protection had been shattered. Tenskwatawa and his forces fled to Canada, and their campaign to unite the tribes of the region to reject assimilation failed.[64][65]
When reporting to Secretary Eustis, Harrison had informed him of the battle near the Tippecanoe River and that he had anticipated an attack. A first dispatch had not been clear which side had won the conflict, and the secretary interpreted it as a defeat until the follow-up dispatch clarified the situation.[66] When no second attack came, the Shawnee defeat had become more certain. Eustis demanded to know why Harrison had not taken adequate precautions in fortifying his camp against the initial attack, and Harrison said that he had considered the position strong enough. The dispute was the catalyst of a disagreement between Harrison and the Department of War, which continued into the War of 1812.[67] Freehling says that Harrison's rusty skills resulted in his troops setting campfires the night before the battle, exposing their position to a surprise attack and casualties.[5]
The press did not cover the battle at first, until one Ohio paper misinterpreted Harrison's first dispatch to mean that he was defeated.[68] By December, however, most major American papers carried stories on the battle victory, and public outrage grew over the Shawnee.[69] Americans blamed the British for inciting the tribes to violence and supplying them with firearms, and Congress passed resolutions condemning the British for interfering in American domestic affairs. Congress declared war on June 18, 1812, and Harrison left Vincennes to seek a military appointment.[70]
War of 1812
This portrait of Harrison originally showed him in civilian clothes as a congressional delegate in 1800; the uniform was added after service in the War of 1812.
The outbreak of war with the British in 1812 led to continued conflict with Indians in the Northwest. Harrison briefly served as a major general in the Kentucky militia until the government commissioned him on September 17 to command the Army of the Northwest.[70] He received federal military pay for his service, and he also collected a territorial governor's salary from September until December 28, when he formally resigned as governor and continued his military service. Authors Gugin and St. Clair claim the resignation was forced upon him.[70] Harrison was succeeded by John Gibson as acting governor of the territory.[70]
The Americans suffered a defeat in the siege of Detroit. General James Winchester offered Harrison the rank of brigadier general, but Harrison wanted sole command of the army. President James Madison removed Winchester from command in September, and Harrison became commander of the fresh recruits.[70] He received orders to retake Detroit and boost morale, but he initially held back, unwilling to press the war northward.[5] The British and their Indian allies greatly outnumbered Harrison's troops, so Harrison constructed a defensive position during the winter along the Maumee River in northwest Ohio. He named it Fort Meigs in honor of Ohio governor Return J. Meigs Jr. He then received reinforcements in 1813, took the offensive, and led the army north to battle. He won victories in the Indiana Territory as well as Ohio and recaptured Detroit before invading Upper Canada (Ontario). His army defeated the British, and Tecumseh was killed, on October 5, 1813, at the Battle of the Thames. It was considered to be one of the great American victories in the war, second only to the Battle of New Orleans, and secured a national reputation for Harrison.[71][5]
In 1814, Secretary of War John Armstrong divided the command of the army, assigning Harrison to an outlying post and giving control of the front to one of Harrison's subordinates.[72] Armstrong and Harrison had disagreed over the lack of coordination and effectiveness in the invasion of Canada, and Harrison resigned from the army in May.[73][74] After the war ended, Congress investigated Harrison's resignation and determined that Armstrong had mistreated him during his military campaign and that his resignation was justified. Congress awarded Harrison a gold medal for his services during the war.[75]
Harrison and Michigan Territory's Governor Lewis Cass were responsible for negotiating the peace treaty with the Indians.[76] President Madison appointed Harrison in June 1815 to help in negotiating a second treaty with the Indians that became known as the Treaty of Springwells, in which the tribes ceded a large tract of land in the west, providing additional land for American purchase and settlement.[35]
Postwar life
Ohio politician and diplomat
Poster lauding Harrison's accomplishments
Harrison resigned from the army in 1814, shortly before the conclusion of the War of 1812, and returned to his family and farm in North Bend, Ohio.[5] Freehling claims that his expenses then well exceeded his means and he fell into debt, that Harrison chose "celebrity over duty", as he sought the adulation found at parties in New York, Washington, and Philadelphia, and that he became an office seeker.[5] He was elected in 1816 to complete John McLean's term in the House of Representatives, representing Ohio's 1st congressional district until 1819. He attempted to secure the post as Secretary of War under President Monroe in 1817 but lost out to John C. Calhoun. He was also passed over for a diplomatic post to Russia.[5] He was elected to the Ohio Senate in 1819 and served until 1821, having lost the election for Ohio governor in 1820.[35] He ran in the 1822 election for the United States House of Representatives, but lost to James W. Gazlay.[5][77] He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1824, and was an Ohio presidential elector in 1820 for James Monroe[78] and for Henry Clay in 1824.[79]
Harrison was appointed in 1828 as minister plenipotentiary to Gran Colombia, so he resigned from Congress and served in his new post until March 8, 1829.[80] He arrived in Bogotá on December 22, 1828, and found the condition of Colombia saddening. He reported to the Secretary of State that the country was on the edge of anarchy, and that Simón Bolívar was about to become a military dictator.[80] He wrote a letter of polite rebuke to Bolívar, stating that "the strongest of all governments is that which is most free" and calling on Bolívar to encourage the development of democracy. In response, Bolívar wrote that the United States "seem destined by Providence to plague America with torments in the name of freedom", a sentiment that achieved fame in Latin America.[80]
Freehling indicates Harrison's missteps in Colombia were "bad and frequent", that he failed to properly maintain a position of neutrality in Colombian affairs, by publicly opposing Bolivar, and that Colombia sought his removal. Andrew Jackson took office in March 1829, and recalled Harrison in order to make his own appointment to the position.[5] Biographer James Hall claims that Harrison found in Colombia a military despotism and that "his liberal opinions, his stern republican integrity, and the plain simplicity of his dress and manners, contrasted too strongly with the arbitrary opinions and ostentatious behaviour of the public officers, to allow him to be long a favourite with those who had usurped the power of that government. They feared that the people would perceive the difference between a real and a pretended patriot, and commenced a series of persecutions against our minister, which rendered his situation extremely irksome."[81] A very similar sentiment of the situation is related by biographer Samuel Burr.
Harrison, after leaving his post but while still in the country, wrote his roughly ten-page letter to Bolivar, which is reproduced in full in the Hall and Burr biographies. It left the former struck by Harrison's "deeply imbued principles of liberty". Burr describes the letter as "replete with wisdom, goodness, and patriotism…and the purest of principles".[81][82]
Private citizen
Harrison returned to the United States and his North Bend farm, living in relative privacy after nearly four decades of government service. He had accumulated no substantial wealth during his lifetime, and he lived on his savings, a small pension, and the income produced by his farm. Burr references M. Chavalier, who encountered Harrison in Cincinnati at this time, and described Harrison as "poor, with a numerous family, abandoned by the Federal government, yet vigorous with independent thinking".[83]
Local supporters had come to Harrison's relief, by appointing him Clerk of Courts for Hamilton County, where he worked from 1836 until 1840.[85] Chevalier remarked, "His friends back east talk of making him President, while here we make him clerk of an inferior court."[83] He also cultivated corn and established a distillery to produce whiskey, but closed it after he became disturbed by the effects of alcohol on its consumers. In an address to the Hamilton County Agricultural Board in 1831, he said that he had sinned in making whiskey and hoped that others would learn from his mistake and stop the production of liquors.[86]
About this time, he met abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor George DeBaptiste who lived in nearby Madison, and the two became friends. Harrison wrote at the time, "we might look forward to a day when a North American sun would not look down upon a slave."[87] DeBaptiste became his valet, and later White House steward.[88]
Burr closes his account of Harrison by describing an event, denied by some of his friends—a reception given the general at Philadelphia, in 1836. According to Burr, "Thousands and tens of thousands crowded Chesnut street wharf upon his arrival, and greeted him with continual cheering as he landed. He stepped into the barouche but the crowd pressed forward so impetuously, that the horses became frightened and reared frequently. A rush was made to unharness the animals when the General spoke to several of them and endeavored to prevent it; but the team was soon unmanageable, and it became necessary to take them off. A rope was brought, and attached to the carriage, by which the people drew it to the Marshall House. This act was the spontaneous burst of ten thousand grateful hearts. Pennsylvanians fought under the hero, and they loved him. We speak particularly on this point, because we were eyewitnesses of all that passed."[89]
Harrison was the western Whig candidate for president in 1836, one of four regional Whig party candidates. The others were Daniel Webster, Hugh L. White, and Willie P. Mangum. More than one Whig candidate emerged in an effort to defeat the incumbent Vice President Martin Van Buren, who was the popular Jackson-chosen Democrat.[90] The Democrats charged that, by running several candidates, the Whigs sought to prevent a Van Buren victory in the electoral college, and force the election into the House.[91] In any case the plan, if there was one, failed. In the end, Harrison came in second, and carried nine of the twenty-six states in the Union.[90][91][92]
Harrison ran in all the non-slave states except Massachusetts, and in the slave states of Delaware, Maryland, and Kentucky. White ran in the remaining slave states except for South Carolina. Daniel Webster ran in Massachusetts, and Mangum in South Carolina.[93] Van Buren won the election with 170 electoral votes.[91] A swing of just over 4,000 votes in Pennsylvania would have given that state's 30 electoral votes to Harrison and the election would have been decided in the House of Representatives.[94][91][92]
Harrison faced incumbent Van Buren as the sole Whig candidate in the 1840 election. The Whigs saw in Harrison a born southerner and war hero, who would contrast well with the aloof, uncaring, and aristocratic Van Buren.[90] He was chosen over more controversial members of the party, such as Clay and Webster; his campaign highlighted his military record and focused on the weak U.S. economy caused by the Panic of 1837.[95]
The Whigs blamed Van Buren for the economic problems and nicknamed him "Van Ruin".[95] The Democrats, in turn, ridiculed the elder Harrison by calling him "Granny Harrison, the petticoat general", because he resigned from the army before the War of 1812 ended. They noted for the voters what Harrison's name would be when spelled backwards: "No Sirrah". They cast him as a provincial, out-of-touch old man who would rather "sit in his log cabin drinking hard cider" than attend to the administration of the country. This strategy backfired when Harrison and running mate John Tyler adopted the log cabin and hard cider as campaign symbols. Their campaign used the symbols on banners and posters and created bottles of hard cider shaped like log cabins, all to connect the candidates to the "common man".[96] Freehling relates that, "One bitter pro-Van Buren paper lamented after his defeat, 'We have been sung down, lied down and drunk down.' In one sentence, this described the new American political process."[97]
Harrison came from a wealthy, slaveholding Virginia family, yet his campaign promoted him as a humble frontiersman in the style popularized by Andrew Jackson, while presenting Van Buren as a wealthy elitist.[96] A memorable example was the Gold Spoon Oration that Pennsylvania's Whig representative Charles Ogle delivered in the House, ridiculing Van Buren's elegant White House lifestyle and lavish spending.[98] The Whigs invented a chant in which people would spit tobacco juice as they chanted "wirt-wirt", and this also exhibited the difference between candidates from the time of the election:[90]
Old Tip he wore a homespun coat, he had no ruffled shirt: wirt-wirt, But Matt he has the golden plate, and he's a little squirt: wirt-wirt!
The Whigs boasted of Harrison's military record and his reputation as the hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe. The campaign slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too" became one of the most famous in American politics.[99] While Van Buren campaigned from the White House, Harrison was on the campaign trail, entertaining with his impressions of Indian war whoops, and took people's minds off the nation's economic troubles. In June 1840, a Harrison rally at the site of the Tippecanoe battle drew 60,000 people.[90] The Village of North Bend, Ohio, as well as the alumni of Ohio State University claim that the state's use of the nickname "Buckeyes" began with Harrison's campaign message.[100][101] Harrison's campaign was the victim of what is described as the nation's first "October surprise." Just days before voters went to the polls, Van Buren's Justice Department alleged that Whig Party officials had committed "the most stupendous and atrocious fraud," when they paid Pennsylvanians to travel to New York to vote for Whig candidates two years earlier.[102]
Voter turnout shot to a spectacular 80%, 20 points higher than the previous election.[97] Harrison won a landslide victory in the Electoral College, 234 electoral votes to Van Buren's 60. The popular vote margin was much closer, at fewer than 150,000 votes, though he carried nineteen of the twenty-six states.[99][103]
1 2 3 4 Smith, Howard; Riley, Edward M., eds. (1978). Benjamin Harrison and the American Revolution. Virginia in the Revolution. Williamsburg, VA: Virginia Independence Bicentennial Commission. pp.59–65. OCLC4781472.
↑ "Carter Bassett Harrison". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. U.S. Congress. Retrieved September 14, 2016.
1 2 3 4 Freehling, William (October 4, 2016). "William Harrison: Domestic Affairs". Charlottesville, Virginia: Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia. Retrieved January 22, 2022.
1 2 3 Whitcomb, John & Claire (2002). Real Life at the White House: 200 Years of Daily Life at America's Most Famous Residence. New York: Routledge. p.81. ISBN978-0-415-93951-5.
↑ Woollen, William Wesley (1975). Biographical and historical sketches of early Indiana. New York: Ayer Publishing. p.51. ISBN978-0-405-06896-6.
↑ "William Henry Harrison: Key Events". Charlottesville, Virginia: Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia. October 7, 2016. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
↑ Damon, Allan L. (June 1974). "Presidential Expenses". American Heritage. 25 (4). Archived from the original on January 7, 2009. Retrieved February 10, 2009.
↑ Freehling, William (October 4, 2016). "William Henry Harrison: Impact and Legacy". Charlottesville, Virginia: Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia. Retrieved March 9, 2019.
↑ Freehling, William (October 4, 2016). "William Henry Harrison: Life In Brief". Charlottesville, Virginia: Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia. Retrieved March 8, 2019.
Bolívar, Simón (1951). Bierck, Harold A. Jr. (ed.). Selected Writings of Bolívar. Vol.II. New York: Colonial Press. ISBN978-1-60635-115-4. compiled by Lecuna, Vicente, translated by Bertrand, Lewis
Calhoun, Charles William (2005). Benjamin Harrison: The 23rd President 1889–1893. The American Presidents. Vol.23. New York: Macmillan. ISBN978-0-8050-6952-5.
Greiff, Glory-June (2005). Remembrance, Faith and Fancy: Outdoor Public Sculpture in Indiana. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press. ISBN978-0-87195-180-9.
Gugin, Linda C.; St. Clair, James E., eds. (2006). The Governors of Indiana. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Press and the Indiana Historical Bureau. ISBN978-0-87195-196-0. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
McCormick, Richard P. (2002). "William Henry Harrison and John Tyler". In Graff, Henry (ed.). The Presidents: A Reference History (7thed.). Macmillan Library Reference USA. pp.139–151. ISBN978-0-684-80551-1.
Owens, Robert M. (2007). Mr. Jefferson's Hammer: William Henry Harrison and the Origins of American Indian Policy. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN978-0-8061-3842-8.; also see online book review
Taylor, William Alexander; Taylor, Aubrey Clarence (1899). Ohio statesmen and annals of progress: from the year 1788 to the year 1900... Vol.1. Columbus: Westbote Co. LCCN01011959.
Barnhart, John D.; Riker, Dorothy L. (1971). Indiana to 1816, the colonial period. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Bureau. OCLC154955.
Booraem, Hendrik (2012). A Child of the Revolution: William Henry Harrison and His World, 1773–1798. Kent State University Press. ISBN978-1-6127-7643-9.
Cheathem, Mark R. (2018). The Coming of Democracy: Presidential Campaigning in the Age of Jackson. ISBN9781421425986.
Ellis, Richard J. (2020). Old Tip vs. the Sly Fox: The 1840 Election and the Making of a Partisan Nation. U of Kansas Press. ISBN978-0-7006-2945-9.
Graff, Henry F. (2002). The Presidents: A Reference History. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. OCLC1036830795.
Jortner, Adam (2012). The Gods of Prophetstown: The Battle of Tippecanoe and the Holy War for the American Frontier. Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-1997-6529-4.
Peterson, Norma Lois (1989). The Presidencies of William Henry Harrison and John Tyler. U of Kansas Press.
Pirtle, Alfred (1900). The Battle of Tippecanoe. Louisville: John P. Morton & Co./ Library Reprints. p.158. ISBN978-0-7222-6509-3. as read to the Filson Club.
Shade, William G. (2013). "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too: William Henry Harrison and the rise of popular politics". In Silbey, Joel H. (ed.). A Companion to the Antebellum Presidents 1837–1861. pp.155–72.
Skaggs, David Curtis (2014). William Henry Harrison and the Conquest of the Ohio Country: Frontier Fighting in the War of 1812. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press. ISBN978-1-4214-0546-9.
External links
Listen to this article (53 minutes)
This audio file was created from a revision of this article dated 28March2019(2019-3-28), and does not reflect subsequent edits.
1. The Whig Party ran regional candidates in 1836. Harrison ran in the Northern states, Hugh White ran in the Southern states, and Daniel Webster ran in Massachusetts.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
